Engenas Lekganyane and the Early ZCC: Oral Texts and Documents Engenas Lekganyane (c.1891-1948) is an extremely difficult individual to study, despite the fact that he is arguably the most important religious figure in southern African history since Robert Moffat. He himself left no written documentation other than his signature. His followers left very few memories as well, and the church did not publish anything about him until 1972. This lack of documentation was made worse by the Zion Christian Church’s unwillingness (until very recent times) to allow researchers and journalists access to their members and services. This document gathers together some of the existing files and includes some new materials. In the author’s opinion, substantial amounts of new written files regarding Lekganyane will be found in the future as new avenues are explored. In the meantime, the following files are made available. They come from three separate repositories. First, there are materials discovered by E.K. Lukhaimane for his officially-sponsored research in the late 1970s. Second, there are official South African files that were later collated into SAB BAO 7264 120/4/68, located in the Pretoria Archives. Third, there are files preserved in the Botswana National Archives, Gaborone, as well as interviews conducted by historians amongst Engenas’s former converts there. This is not an exhaustive list of materials. I have not included a lot of small, disparate items dealing with various aspects of his life such as his education, land purchases, licenses, etc, and I did not include a corpus of contentious “big star, little star” prophecies that allegedly delineated his successor. A much richer picture of Lekganyane is now gradually emerging. He was born after 1890 into a family of Lutheran converts at Mphome mission adjacent to the Mamabolo Reserve east of Pietersburg. During the chaos of the 1890s the Mamabolo fell out with the Lutherans and also scattered. Lekganyane may have spent his childhood on several different farms and as far away as Potgietersrust. After 1904 the Mamabolo began to return home, and also purchased several farms adjacent to their reserve. Lekganyane and his family returned during this move, and he attended an Anglican mission school for three years, before attending another one in Pietersburg for two more. Most of Lekganyane’s family joined the Anglican church, although he did not. After returning home at the end of 1909, he joined a new Presbyterian mission church in his vicinity and began working on construction projects. In 1911 or 1912 he went to Boksburg and became a member of the Apostolic Faith Mission after being converted by Elias Mahlangu. After returning to the Northern Transvaal in 1914, he found work in various regions and remained with the AFM. Apparently he sought preaching credentials at this time, but Mahlangu could not obtain them for him from the White church leadership. In late 1916 Mahlangu seceded from the AFM with a fairly large section of African sympathizers, and Lekganyane joined this schism and received a preaching certificate thereafter. Lekganyane was a charismatic preacher, but his taking of jobs in numerous locales probably prevented him from being given a post. In 1918 or so he moved back to the Mamabolo reserve when the ZAC preacher died and became the preacher there. He also got married